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Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

26/11/2007

BBC Four - Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Rock singer Mark Everett learns about the quantum physicist father he never really knew.

Documentary which follows the singer of US rock band Eels, Mark Everett, as he travels across America to learn about the father he never knew, quantum physicist Hugh Everett III.

Documentary which tells the story of a rock star and a quantum mechanic. Mark Oliver Everett, better known as E, is the lead singer of cult US band the Eels. What most of his fans don't know is that Mark's father, Hugh Everett III, was one of America's top quantum physicists. In 1957, Hugh Everett came up with a revolutionary theory that predicts the existence of parallel universes. The idea quickly seeped into popular culture but only recently has it been accepted by mainstream physicists.

However, Mark was estranged from his father - Hugh died when Mark was just 19 - and knows little about his father's early life and virtually nothing about his controversial theory. With a soundtrack by the Eels, the film follows the wry and charismatic Mark as he travels across America to learn about the father he never knew. It is only by entering the paradoxical world of quantum mechanics that Mark can hope to understand why he was such a stranger to his own father.

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